The present worldwide rate of consumption of a finite quantity of fossil fuel has initiated Applicants' far reaching investigations into improved energy systems for energy conservation. One promising approach to energy conservation is the use of high thermal conductance potential heat pipes for the recovery of heat lost in effluent processing waste streams. The water to water heat pipe heat exchanger as described herein presents a novel, highly efficient, and versatile approach to energy conservation and a solution to various heat transfer problems.
This invention relates generally to heat exchangers, useful for dissipating heat in any system by transferring heat from a hot to a cool substance. Such a system may be used for instance to alleviate the excessive heat generated during thermonuclear reactions, wherein cool water is exposed to a vessel containing hot waste water to cool the temperature of the waste water, such that no mixing or interchange of hot and cool water occurs.
Similarly, exothermal chemical reactions which generate excessive heat or reactions requiring heat may be effectively controlled using a heat exchanger, whereby cool water is exposed to a reaction vessel containing hot reagents to dissipate the heat generated during the chemical process. In this manner, if the reaction vessel is cooled, the reaction rate may be controlled by reducing the temperature of the reagents to slow the reaction. Alternately, any end products or by-products of the chemical reaction having an excessively high temperature as a result of the reaction process may be cooled prior to discharge of the end product or by-product into a purifiation system for environmental discharge or prior to discharge directly into the environment.
Alternatively, the heat exchanger described herein may be used to conserve heat generated in a system whereby one or more components utilized therein must be heated prior to chemical reaction. For example, wherever a hot solvent system is used to extract or purify a contaminant or other compound, the heat contained in the waste solvent can be captured with the heat exchanger to heat additional solvent or a different reagent in the reaction sequence if necessary.